Meta 5.5.2 Front Fork Travel

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May 24, 2012, 09:47:12 AM

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[CupraR]

Ok, I recently purchased myself a Meta 552, yesterday I realised that my front suspension only compresses by about 100mm, seeing as there 140mm Fox Float RL's how come this is happening?

I have been on the Fox website and read up on how to change the amount of travel (a little more involving than I wanted to start on on a new bike) and see it's just a matter of altering plastic spacers but also requiring oil to be used too.

Why do they produce a 140mm Fork, then Commencal restrict it to !00mm, or have I missed the point?

[steveb]

The forks should be 140mm, Commencal don't restrict them to 100.

First off, how much of the stanctions are showing? (They're the bits that slide in and out of the lowers).

[Affe]

I've read about this years Float RL's not giving the whole travel. I guess it's nothing to do with Commencal. Can't remember was it only RL or other models too, but it's a known issue.
some guy somewhere did something to his fork to get the whole travel and succeeded. My fork is the same but I wouldnt dare to try as I know popo about insides of forks and so far been happy with it...
I can dig the story out for you though, if you want?
Others not noticed this yet or are your forks fine?

[steveb]

I've not seen or heard of it before, we do sell a lot of Fox. But anyway, no way would they drop by 40mm.

[Rufus]

Put a zip tie around one of the fork legs and ride the bike.
It's possible that you don't feel you're getting all the travel out of the forks, but that you infact do.

You should not be able to bottom them just by pushing on them.

If all else fails take them to the shop you bought them at, or the nearest shop you trust.

Maybe you've crashed them and bent them slightly?

Might be the springs are too stiff or there is too much air in them?

[CupraR]

The forks should be 140mm, Commencal don't restrict them to 100.

First off, how much of the stanctions are showing? (They're the bits that slide in and out of the lowers).

The full amount is showing Steve ie 140mm.

I released all the air out earlier to allow them to fully go down, they still hit this stop at only 100mm down (measured from tie wrap on fork stancion) So I pumped them back up.  Not sure what's happened to be honest, just I started reading the Fox help guides and it showed how to restrict the movement and I came up with have mine somehow been restricted.

[CupraR]

Put a zip tie around one of the fork legs and ride the bike.
It's possible that you don't feel you're getting all the travel out of the forks, but that you infact do.

You should not be able to bottom them just by pushing on them.

If all else fails take them to the shop you bought them at, or the nearest shop you trust.

Maybe you've crashed them and bent them slightly?

Might be the springs are too stiff or there is too much air in them?

I've only ridden it the once Rufus, there not crash damaged.  I did release all the air out so as to prove it wasn't just me not being able to get full travel and they still stopped after travelling 100mm down, the rest of the Stancion is still showing above my tie wrap.

[Rufus]

Ah, might be too much oil in them then. Either causing hydraulic lock or just making the air pressure ramp up towards the end of the stroke.

Glad you haven't crashed.

[Rufus]

http://www.foxracingshox.com/fox_tech_center/owners_manuals/08/eng/FOXHelpEnglish.pdf

I did some research (cos I'm a bit geeky) and found out that the fork can be reduced to 100mm, maybe this was done by mistake, or the factory put the wrong forks on...
Things like this happen, I once sold a guy some 888's that he found to be "a bit bouncy"... we opened them up and they had no oil in!

[steveb]

No oil in Mazzies is common, really common. Mazzie forks with totally wrong internals is not uncommon.

Fox Floats at 100 being put on a Commie by mistake? I'll stick my neck out here and say nope, never happened, impossible. Specially considering the Floats for Commie for made specially for them (colour) so if some standard F100's made it into the batch they'd be very noticable, they'd be the wrong colour!

Regardless you'll be able to see immediately if the forks are set at 100mm as they will look extremely short and the front of the bike sill be very low. Also the bike will ride all wrong. So, really, 100mm floats on a Meta5? Nope, not gonna happen.

Measure the stanctions, these should be exposed by about 140mm, if they are next remove all the air and see if they'll compress totally, if they do then they're working fine. Maybe your running too much pressure in them?

Best bet is back to the shop you got them from really.

[CupraR]

first of all can i say a big thank you for all the help you guys have given. Its much appreciated.  Now for the egg on my face bit. I managed to fathom out what was wrong. I had fitted a topeak defender front mudguard mount and as a result the forks were hitting the mount after 100mm of travel lol. Again thanks for the help. But i am happy to report that i now have full travel.  Roll on dalby tomorrow to test it out.

[Affe]

hahaha! I have to appologise too! I checked the story out, and it turned out to be about 07 Floats having a problem travelling only 120mm so should have checked it first before posting anything. I checked mine like suggested and it goes all the way 140mm. I thank you for letting me be one bit wiser and happier again!
Clad your fork is fine!

[steveb]

first of all can i say a big thank you for all the help you guys have given. Its much appreciated.  Now for the egg on my face bit. I managed to fathom out what was wrong. I had fitted a topeak defender front mudguard mount and as a result the forks were hitting the mount after 100mm of travel lol. Again thanks for the help. But i am happy to report that i now have full travel.  Roll on dalby tomorrow to test it out.

I didn't see that you'd posted back between my posts (few to many glasses of wine!) so apologies for repeating myself.

Glad you got it sorted. Daft mistake? We've all been there, you learnt from your mistake though and that's what matters.

Happy riding.

[CupraR]

@ AFFE, yep, glad is all sorted mate, and glad you learnt a little from my mistakes hehe.

@Steve, Yep, we all certainly learn from our mistakes, the thing that baffled me from the start though was the fact of reading on the Fox site about how to reduce travel and immediately thought mine had been restricted lol.  At least this way it saved me having to travel 250 mile round trip to take it back to the shop.

[Rufus]

Happy ending!
It's kinda a bonus to get 40mm extra travel on a saturday!